Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday expressed his determination to quash the rebellion against his regime, while receiving an Iranian envoy who assured in turn Tehran's support to Syria. At this meeting, Syrian television showed President Assad, who has not appeared in public since the swearing in of the new defense minister on July 22, speaking with Mr. Saeed Jalili and other Iranian delegation members.

"The Syrian people and its government are determined to purge the country of terrorists and to combat terrorism relentlessly," Assad told Jalili, the envoy of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Jalili said that "what is taking place in Syria is not an internal issue but rather a conflict between the resistance axis on one hand and the enemies of this axis in the region and the world on the other hand with the goal being to strike Syria's resistant role."

Jalili affirmed that Iran will by no means allow to break the axis of resistance of which Syria is an essential part.

Earlier, Jalili was quoted as saying by the Damascus correspondent of the Iranian channel Al-Alam that "the solution to the crisis in Syria must come from within the country through national dialogue, not through the intervention of external forces. "

President Assad affirmed that Syria is moving ahead with the national dialogue and is "able by its people's will to foil the foreign projects that are aimed at targeting the resistance in the region and weakening Syria's role in it."